Are Frost Mages Squishy?

Just lookiing for the opinions of some experienced mages. I have a Sp main and a lock alt, i do like both but i am getting board and dare i say i fancy a frost mage, thing is though im afraid they might be abit squishy compared to what im used to, could anybody shed their opinion pretty plz?

E.g. properly used Temporal Shield and Alter Time provide you with up to 3 life bars. But if used incorrectly, you die a horrible death (Alter Time at low health, get healed to full, Alter Time back to low health, dead).

The main difference between Mage and Shadow Priest is that you don't tank. There's Blink every 15 sec to remove stuns and roots, there are multiple slows and novas to kite, Blazing Speed to ignore snares, Greater Invisibility is your mini Dispersion and you can also clear all dots and CCs with Ice Block (except Cyclone).

E.g. properly used Temporal Shield and Alter Time provide you with up to 3 life bars. But if used incorrectly, you die a horrible death (Alter Time at low health, get healed to full, Alter Time back to low health, dead).

The main difference between Mage and Shadow Priest is that you don't tank. There's Blink every 15 sec to remove stuns and roots, there are multiple slows and novas to kite, Blazing Speed to ignore snares, Greater Invisibility is your mini Dispersion and you can also clear all dots and CCs with Ice Block (except Cyclone).

but despite all that arsenal as it sounds so many classes have catch up mechanics which pretty much nulifies most of these in no time at all.

In answer to your question we have CDs which can be powerful but rarely get the chance to shine the other end to DPS due to having to constantly kite and now CAST while moving which doesn't happen.

I'd stick with the SP/lock if you like a non squishy caster.

Last edited by Salystra; 2013-09-30 at 01:39 PM.

Originally Posted by Equim

I really don't see anything wrong with playing what you enjoy. Be it Frost, Fire, Arcane or Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

Mages have absolutely fantastic defensive cooldowns but are practically made of paper outside of those

Besides Ice Barrier, I'd say we actually have among the worst defensives o.o; (definitely not THE worst class, but among the worst)

Ice Block sure, but during that time, you can't do anything either (it's by far the worst of the 3 Immunities in the game, the others being Divine Shield and Deterrence). As for the other, G Invis only blocks one/a few attacks at best. Cauterize... well, you need Ice Block, Ice Barrier, a Potion, or outside healing to make that effective, and Cold Snap simply isn't as good as G Invis is, but it's fairly good in PvP where you can make use of the CoC/Nova reset.

Like Nick said though, excluding our (what I deem decent to bad) cooldowns, we are incredibly squishy, having the least Base HP and Armor in the game with no spells that increase either (with the exception of if you have Molten Armor up, which you ONLY do in PvE as Fire, and only then, it gives you enough Physical Reduction to make you equivalent to a high-leather/low-mail armored player). Mages are all about avoiding damage from being taken in the first place, rather than simply reducing damage done to us or healing it back, which is why we have 2 (3 with Cauterize) "Mechanic Cheesing" cooldowns, and spells that give us movement like Blazing Speed and Blink.

In terms of pure, raw, defensive power though (excluding avoiding things), we're one of the worst.